Zedillo, Davis read classic at next-wave public school

Robert Salladay, EXAMINER CAPITOL BUREAU

Published 4:00 am, Friday, May 21, 1999

1999-05-21 04:00:00 PDT CALIFORNIA; LOS ANGELES -- LOS ANGELES - Remnants of immigrations past are everywhere in the East Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights, from Chicago and St. Louis streets to the Salesian Family Youth Center.

Now Cesar Chavez Avenue runs through the neighborhood, and Breed Street Elementary School, which Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo visited Thursday, has a student population including two Asians, two African Americans and 715 Latinos.

As Zedillo and Gov. Davis ended a three-day tour throughout the state, they could not have picked a more fitting place than Breed Street to celebrate the growing influence of Mexican Americans in California.

"Boyle Heights is kind of like the Ellis Island of Los Angeles, where all the immigrants came through," said Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, who represents the area and introduced Zedillo on Thursday. "When I was growing up, my best friends were Brian Miyakawa and Larry Patapoff. The whole area has just kind of continued to evolve."

Breed Street Elementary also is a living laboratory for Proposition 227, which ended bilingual education in California. Like other Latino-dominated schools around the state, Breed has been struggling with - and embracing - the initiative, and finding Latino parents overwhelmingly supporting the new English-immersion classes.

After dining the night before in Beverly Hills and confining himself to hotel ballrooms for two days, Zedillo's excursion to Breed Street gave him a street-level glimpse of the new California and of Los Angeles, which he has called the second largest Mexican city.

A flickering sea of green, red and white Mexican flags greeted the president as the Roosevelt High School mariachi band played under cloudy skies Thursday morning. Two young students, Mayra Gutierrez and Erik Lopez, introduced the governor and president in flawless Spanish and English.

Zedillo and Davis, who got cheers when he made even the simplest comment in Spanish, then went to a second-grade classroom to read a book aloud.

Davis has introduced a program encouraging private companies to donate money so that public elementary schools can buy children's literature for their libraries. He's already put $25 million in his requested 1999-2000 state budget for school library books.

At Breed, Davis read the first half of "The Little Engine That Could" in English and Zedillo read the second half in Spanish.

"Gracias, gracias," the students said as Zedillo and Davis passed out free Spanish-language "La Pequena Locomotora" books to them.

From 1976 until last year, when California voters approved Prop. 227, state law required students to be taught in their primary language. Under Prop. 227, however, students are placed in English-immersion classes unless parents request a waiver.

Few parents at Breed have requested that waiver, administrators and teachers said, so the school has flung itself into the new system. Test scores have remained comparatively high after the switch.

Nonetheless, "the lower grades are still in shock. It was a very difficult year," said Breed teacher Leah Kamm, whose own history many students at Breed could understand: Born in Poland, Kamm moved to Israel as a child and was forced to learn Hebrew in a household that only spoke Polish.

Kamm said she has mixed feelings about bilingual education, but says the biggest problem is getting parents involved.

Many feel intimidated by the education system and many are illiterate or semi-literate and feel embarrassed about approaching teachers or reading to their children, she said.

Kamm believes every new parent should be given a packet of books to read to their children - in the hospital when their baby is born.

"Some of our children come from disadvantaged backgrounds and they lack the background in even their own language," Kamm said. "It takes about two or three years to bring them up to par. It's a struggle in any language. If they were well-prepared in Spanish, if the home were literate, we could transition them to English easier."

Either way, students interviewed at Breed said they learn enough Spanish at home and like the idea of becoming expert in English at school.

"I think students should be taught to be bilingual," said fifth-grader Jessica Ramirez, 11, who was dropped off at school with her brother, cousin and young uncle. Jessica is fully bilingual.

"I think that's important, because when they have a job, like a lawyer, if you have a customer who speaks Spanish, and you only speak English, you're going to need that other language," she said.

Parents seem to be embracing the changes too, said Breed teaching assistant Maritza Sasaki, who moved to California from Colombia 31 years ago.

"I think we were not sure if it was going to be OK. But now the parents seem to like it," she said. "Students pick the English up quickly, although there are some that fall behind ."

Zedillo, who once served as the Mexican secretary of education, made no mention of Prop. 227 during the visit to Breed Street. Neither did Davis.

The governor and Zedillo were instead intent on talking about rebuilding educational ties between California and Mexico.

Beyond the new textbook fund, the Davis administration is working on expanding exchange programs for Mexican and U.S. teachers and administrators.

Mexico and California already have some exchanges. A teacher from Mexico is working in San Francisco Unified School District; other Mexican teachers are spread throughout the state. Student exchanges also are common, particularly in Southern California.

Under a program sponsored by the Mexican government, Mexico donates to any California school a complete set of Mexican elementary school textbooks, if requested, so teachers can find out what their incoming students were learning before they arrived.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina called the Breed visit and Zedillo's trip to California a tremendous beginning.

"You can see it in the eyes of these children," she said.

"But symbolism alone won't do it." &lt;

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